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Examiner – There is a global movement towards the harmonization of best practices and standards in the hedge fund industry amongst investors, hedge funds, funds of hedge funds, policymakers, service providers and regulatory authorities. In response to the global financial crisis, the G20 agrees on the need to extend regulation and oversight to all systemically important firms, including hedge funds.
Organizations such as the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA), Hedge Fund Standards Board (HFSB), International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Managed Funds Association (MFA) and the Asset Managers’ Committee of the President’s Working Group (PWG) have individually published viewpoints on how a system of best standards and practices should be adopted.
Reuters – The drafting of the European Commission’s directive on the hedge fund industry has been "rushed through" without adequate consultation, industry body the Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) said.
"We are also concerned that the process of drafting the directive has been subjected to undue political pressure," AIMA’s executive director Florence Lombard said in a statement published on Thursday.
Bloomberg – The annual Hedge Funds Care benefit – - backed by Kenneth Tropin and Michael Vranos — will downsize from a black-tie dinner to a cocktail party tomorrow night in New York.
The nonprofit, which aids child-abuse prevention programs, is hoping a laidback atmosphere will encourage some donors to write bigger checks — and allow jobless hedge-fund managers to network while eating mini-hot dogs and shrimp instead of filet mignon.
“A formal, sit-down dinner wouldn’t have been the most appropriate thing to do when times are so bad,” Kathryn Conroy, the organization’s executive director, said in a telephone interview.
Chicago Tribune – "The key change in the next decade is that policymakers around the world have chosen the winners and losers," Griffin said at a Wednesday panel. "The winners are the banking system."
By selecting commercial banks to become the centerpiece of the financial industry, the government closed the era of investment banks and hedge funds with highly leveraged balance sheets.
That should translate into safer and more conservative investing choices, but also less innovation by financiers and higher interest rates for borrowers, he predicted.
As roughly 8,000 hedge funds respond by reducing the size of their multitrillion-dollar balance sheets, their role in the system will inevitably be diminished, Griffin said.
